Method and a device for identifying potential hazard zones in road traffic

Abstract

A method for identifying potential hazard zones in road traffic by vehicles connected to a central computer unit involves recording an incident indicative of a potential hazard zone and transmitting it to the central computer unit with its geolocation. The transmitted incident is listed as a hotspot in a digital map if there are a large number of similar incidents with the same geolocation. Contextual information is added to the transmitted incident. The hotspot is analyzed for the identification of a potential hazard zone, a current hotspot is compared with confirmed hotspots, the hotspots are visualized on a platform, with a geolocation of a hotspot-confirmed traffic critical incident being transmitted to an authority to be checked and/or as a warning message to a vehicle currently near such an analyzed hotspot.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for identifying potential hazard zones in road traffic by vehicles connected to a central computer unit, the method comprising:
 recording an incident indicative of a potential hazard zone and transmitting the recorded incident to the central computer unit with a geolocation of the incident, wherein the recorded incident is vegetation obscuring a pedestrian crossing; 
 listing the transmitted incident as a hotspot in a digital map if there are a large number of similar incidents with a same geolocation as the incident; 
 adding contextual information to the transmitted incident; 
 analyzing the hotspot to recognize a potential hazard zone; 
 comparing the hotspot with confirmed hotspots; and 
 depicting the hotspot and confirmed hotspots on a platform, wherein a geolocation of a hotspot of confirmed traffic-critical incidents is transmitted to an authority to be checked or as a warning message to a vehicle that is near the geolocation of the hotspot of the confirmed traffic-critical incidents, 
 wherein the geolocation of the hotspot is reported to a road authority. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the contextual information is a time of day, a direction of travel of the vehicle, a length of a signal, a number of incidents over time, a level of curvature of a road, historical accidents, photographic and map data, pedestrian movements, cultural events at a certain time of day, or further data points from other data providers. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein a hotspot of a certain traffic-critical incident is transmitted to and displayed on a display unit of an infotainment system of the vehicle as a warning message. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the hotspot and the confirmed hotspots depicted on the platform are validated by users of the platform. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the hotspot is deleted from the digital map if the incident indicating the potential hazard zone is no longer detected by vehicles. 
     
     
       6. A central computer unit configured to identify potential hazard zones in road traffic by vehicles connected to the central computer unit, wherein a control unit of the vehicles is configured to detect an incident indicative of a potential hazard zone using signals recorded by an environmental sensor in the vehicle and to transmit the incident and a geolocation of the incident to the central computer unit over a data connection, the central computer unit being configured to:
 receive the transmitted incident with the geolocation of the incident from the vehicle over the data connection, wherein the transmitted incident is vegetation obscuring a pedestrian crossing; 
 list the transmitted incident as a hotspot in a digital map if there are a large number of similar incidents with a same geolocation as the incident; 
 add contextual information to the transmitted incident; 
 analyze the hotspot to recognize a potential hazard zone; 
 compare the hotspot with confirmed hotspots; and 
 depict the hotspot and confirmed hotspots on a platform, wherein a geolocation of a hotspot of confirmed traffic-critical incidents is transmitted to an authority to be checked or as a warning message to a vehicle that is near the geolocation of the hotspot of the confirmed traffic-critical incidents, 
 wherein the geolocation of the hotspot is reported to a road authority.